June 26, 2025

Good morning. I am standing out here taking in the morning sun. There it is, the beautiful sunrise. And you know the thing that's on my mind this morning? I love it when like a really loud car just decides to go blaring by as I'm trying to say something. Actually, I don't love it. It annoys me. The thing that's on my mind this morning is knowing that you're not alone. Knowing that you're not alone when you're going through something. And there's this habit that I've had in my life, not so pervasive anymore, but occasionally it still comes up, but that habit is thinking that nobody knows what I'm going through. I'm the only one that's going through this. Nobody understands. I catastrophize things in my mind. I I make mountains out of molehills, which drives me into isolation, depression, hopelessness, paralyzation, inaction, blah, blah, blah, right? So, if you're going through something in your life right now, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are other people on this planet who are enduring the same, if not very similar circumstances. And for sure, there's people on the planet that are going through things a hell of a lot worse. Than what you're going through. Now, I know at some level you understand that, but at least for me, in my moments of frustration or, you know, upset about things that I cannot immediately change in my life, my mind can take me into this place of terminal uniqueness, I like to call it. Terminal uniqueness. Well, nobody understands. Nobody. And man, it's just so false. So number 1, if you're carrying a burden all by yourself, I would encourage you to reach out to somebody else and to share that. I'm not talking about venting because venting does absolutely nothing positive. It may make you feel better for the moment, but in the long run, all it's doing is it's reinforcing negativity, hopelessness, powerlessness, victimization. It's, you know, and to be honest, like, if you're venting all the time, you're going to wear people out. Nobody wants to hear you complain. I mean, maybe here and there, right? People can tolerate that. But if it's a constant diet of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like, nobody wants it. You're going to drive people away, and then you really will be alone. So that's one thing. It's like, make sure that you are sharing openly and honestly with somebody about what is happening in your life. And doing so from a point of this is going on, it's hard, I'm, you know, working the best I can to walk through this, but I need some strategies. I could use some encouragement. Yesterday morning I was up really early. I was at the gym, not even, it was not even 4 AM when I got there, and sadly it was because I couldn't sleep. Because my mind woke me up with these things that are on my mind that are troubling me. And I reached out to— I had a moment of like real hopelessness and I reached out to my coach and I don't even remember what I said to him, but man, he came back with such encouragement, like nonstop. I mean, text after text after text after text, long text reminding me who I was, telling me how he saw me, telling me, you know, how great I am. Really encouraging me and like it literally brought tears to my eyes in the gym, but it helped me remember who I was because in that moment my mind was attacking me, you know, not enough sleep, upset about not wanting to be up that early, little things that just mess with my mindset and he reminded me who I was. One of the first things that he said to me was, Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. Now that's important because if you're a person of faith, like, you cannot negate the absolute crucial value to knowing that God is with you, right? That God has you, that God created you for a purpose. And if you don't know God, I want to be the first to tell you that you were created for a purpose. You are here for a purpose. You know, you are filled for greatness. You were created for something great. Now, the type of greatness can vary, right? Some of us are meant to be, you know, world changers on a massive scale. Some of us are meant to be world changers on a micro scale. But every single one of us has a purpose. We're created fearfully and wonderfully we are made, right? And that's important to remember. So, And then the second thing is like nothing lasts forever. Like whatever we're going through, it's only temporary. And like, I'll give you an example of something that's really been bothering me lately. I've had 4 hernia surgeries, right? And every single time it's happened again, I felt this sense of, oh gosh, you know, did I hurt myself again? The fear, the trepidation. I don't want to go through the surgery, blah, blah, blah. Well, a few weeks ago I was in the gym and I hurt myself. So now I've been wondering, do I actually have, you know, have I ruptured myself again? Do I have another hernia? And like the sense of upset about that because it impacts, you know, how I train. It impacts like every single day I'm in pain. And like, what happens is I tend to get into this spiral of shame, like, you know, how could you be so stupid? Why are you lifting so heavy? You don't— like, who are you trying to impress? All these negative things come up in my mind, and it just steals my peace. So the fact of the matter is, maybe I did and maybe I didn't, and the only thing that's going to determine it is, you know, I have to get to a doctor and get checked out. So as soon as I can do that, then I'll know, and whatever happens happens. I have to deal with it. It's the acceptance thing, right? Getting to this point of acceptance, and that is the hard thing. Like, I don't always want to accept the circumstances in my life. I don't always— like, I'm not always eager to do that. I'm sure you're not either. But, you know, the other choice is to is to fight it. You know, with many years in recovery, I— there's like bugs or something out there that are jumping all over me, so I'm sorry for fidgeting. Many years in recovery, you know, I was exposed to this, the Serenity Prayer, which goes, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Right now, there is an awful lot of wisdom in those three lines. And, you know, like right now I can't change whether or not I have actually hurt myself. So I just accept the possibility that maybe I did. The courage to change it means if that requires another procedure, then I got to be courageous enough to go through it. And, you know, now I have the wisdom to tell the difference. For that. So, I don't know, if there's something that is really weighing heavy on your heart, maybe that will be useful to you. And the last thing I want to say today is, man, be encouraged. Do not quit. Keep going. Life is— if life is simple for you, thank God. If life is difficult for you, Thank God that he's with you and you're going to get through it. And if life is terrifying right now, ask for help and support and courage and don't give up. Do not give up. Remember, you were created for greatness and think about all the things that you have overcome and don't allow circumstances or excuses to get in the way. Okay, there's, there's It's easy to justify realistic circum— is that the right way of saying this? It's easy to use real life circumstances to justify failure and giving up. For example, I'm not as young as I used to be. I don't have the energy that I used to have. You know, my thinking isn't as clear. All of those things may be true. So what? So what, right? You and I develop new ways of walking through whatever we have to walk through if we have the courage and the conviction and the faith to just keep taking steps. Reach out for support. Know you're not alone and don't give up. All right. Hey, we're close to the end of this 90 days. And if you've been watching all these, I just want to tell you, thank you. I love you for being here and Just don't give up. You were made for greatness. Talk to you soon.